Richard Siddaway - Learn Active Directory Management in a Month of Lunches

Just set aside an hour a day for a monthlunchtime would be perfectand youll be comfortable and productive with Active Directory before you know it.

At the heart of your Windows network is Active Directory, the control center for administration, security, and other core management functions. If youre new to Active Directory administrationor if you find yourself unexpectedly thrust into that roleyoull need to get up to speed fast.

It skips the theory and concentrates on the day-to-day administration tasks you need to know to keep your network running smoothly.

Learn Active Directory Management in a Month of Lunches is a hands-on tutorial designed for IT pros new to Active Directory. Without assuming previous administration experience, the book starts by walking you through the most important day-to-day system management tasks. Youll learn how to administer AD both from the GUI tools built into Windows and by using PowerShell at the command line. Along the way, youll touch on best practices for managing user access, setting group policies, automating backups, and more.

This book assumes no prior experience with Active Directory or Windows administration. Examples are based in Windows Server 2012

Whats Inside

• ADM tasks youll need every day
• GUI and command line techniques
• Content tested by new administrators
• Well-illustrated, clearly explained examples

Table of Contents

1. Before you begin
2. Creating user accounts
3. Managing user accounts
4. Managing groups
5. Troubleshooting users and groups
6. Managing computer accounts
7. Managing organizational units

1. Creating Group Policies
2. Managing Group Policies
3. Fine-grained password policies

1. Creating domain controllers
2. Managing domain controllers
3. Protecting AD data
4. Security: Default groups and delegation
5. Managing DNS
6. Managing sites and subnets
7. AD replication
8. Managing AD trusts

1. Troubleshooting your AD
2. Maintaining and monitoring Active Directory
3. Future work and final exam
4. Into the cloud

Richard Siddaway is an experienced all-around Windows administrator with two decades of experience.
Hes the author of PowerShell in Practice andPowerShell and WMI, and coauthor of PowerShell in Depth.

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To my children, Robert and Alexander You make me so proud

Ive worked with many organizations over the last 10 years. In that time Ive realized that Active Directory administration is a critical function for the continued health of a Windows environment. Unfortunately, many AD administrators arent taught how to perform these tasks. An even worse scenario is when they are taught bad practices which have become ingrained in the organization. There are many administrators who find themselves responsible for administering an Active Directory without the skills and knowledge to do so.

This book looks at AD administration from a different viewpoint than most books on the subject. It concentrates on the day-to-day administration tasks you need to perform to get your job done. Theres some theory, but just enough to explain why things are done the way they are. You can always learn the rest of the theory once youve put the fires out.

Ive taken a pragmatic approach to the contents and kept a rigorous focus on the information you need to complete a task. Many of the administration tasks can be completed using GUI tools or through Windows PowerShell. Ive tried to show both where possiblethough some tasks only have a single possible way to complete them.

Ive brought some of the experience Ive had building Active Directories and troubleshooting AD in various organizations. Hopefully, this will help you avoid some of the pitfalls and problems Ive seen.

The book is designed to be a tutorial, so work through the book, but also keep it close by as a reference for when you need it. My hope is that it will help you over some of the learning hurdles and help you become a skilled AD administrator.

Most of all, enjoy.

Most of what youll need to know about this book is in , but there are a few things that need to be mentioned up front.

First, this book is intended for the IT Pro that needs to learn about managing Active Directory. Its not a reference book. It wont teach you how to design a new Active Directory. It will teach you to manage your Active Directory and supply the theory you need to accomplish the management tasks. Most people learn best by using multiple techniques. I strongly recommend that you complete the exercises in each chapter and the lab section at the end of each chapter. Youll be learning by reading and learning by doing.